The present invention relates in general to maintenance and repair of equipment and, more particularly, to systems for providing information for maintenance and repair of equipment. Specifically, one embodiment of the invention provides a computer based apparatus and method which provide access to complex technical information employed to maintain and repair complicated equipment, such as aircraft, to enable compliance with regulatory requirements.
Historically, various publishers, including manufacturers and governmental agencies, have provided printed information regarding maintenance and repair of equipment, such as aircraft, subject to regulatory requirements. As a service to aircraft maintenance and repair personnel, Aircraft Technical Publishers, located in Brisbane, Calif., for example, consolidates and serves as a central source of aircraft technical information for the aircraft industry. This company collects, catalogs, and synopsizes maintenance and repair information and provides a library of this information to subscribers. As a library service provider, this company interacts with aircraft manufacturers and maintenance and repair operations world-wide to support subscriber inquiry and develop products tailored to the needs of the subscribers.
More particularly, Aircraft Technical Publishers integrates the general maintenance and repair publications of the aviation fleet into a unified library service. This library service includes periodic updates of the library. See xe2x80x9cProduct Catalog,xe2x80x9d Aircraft Technical Publishers, Spring, 1992.
Presently, the library resides on microfiche which is periodically updated. Although microfiche reduces storage requirements, microfiche can be misfiled, and microfiche readers are cumbersome to use.
It is therefore desirable to provide a system to facilitate access to, and update of, maintenance and repair information by the aviation industry. Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide an approach that would enable subscribers to interact with a single interface to all the publications required for maintaining and repairing a specific aircraft. It is also desirable to provide an industry-appropriate solution which accommodates support of the maintenance and repair operations of subscribers by an independent source database publisher to reduce the large investment required for any particular organization, such as a manufacturer, independent maintenance and repair operation, or governmental agency, that wishes to publish libraries. Potentially, this single source approach would facilitate industry usage through adoption of common standards and conventions.
One embodiment of the invention provides a computer accessed database to facilitate retrieval and update of information for maintenance and repair of a given type of complex equipment, particularly equipment that is subject to regulatory requirements. It is also contemplated that the system in accordance with the invention can be generalized to manage text and graphics necessary to assist other service providers (such as doctors, lawyers, accountants, and others) in providing services.
A preferred embodiment of the invention provides a maintenance and repair information system based on a database of aircraft technical information. Specifically, a CD-ROM-based computer system is provided which runs an aircraft maintenance and repair assistance program that includes a number of novel features for accessing and managing aircraft maintenance and repair information. The use of CD-ROM technology enables the system to be economically feasible for both information providers, such as manufacturers and governmental agencies, and general aviation maintenance and repair operations to transfer to electronic delivery of maintenance and repair publications.
In accordance with the preferred embodiment, the maintenance and repair information system is a CD-ROM multi-media knowledge-based reference system designed specifically for aircraft maintenance personnel. The elements of this system include: an interactive audio tutorial; a security key for both users and the system, as well as system administration to provide different authorization levels for users; hypertext of publications stored on CD-ROM searchable for complex technical information; a profiler database for particular equipment entries; and system software. The software is designed for interactivity with the database residing on a hard drive of the computer and includes a way for the user to comment and add expertise to the system by allowing the user to opt for the ability to import data, such as an aircraft profile, or to create public or private bookmarks and annotations.
Other features general to the maintenance information system include: color title strips indicating the type of publication being viewed and the process used to reach that document; text coloration for easy identification of where hyperlinks are and what type of information they are linked to; document hyperlinks allowing quick migration between cross-referenced documents; and section/subsection hyperlinks providing easy access to associated information within a document.
An aircraft specific mode is the first of six modes listed vertically on the right-hand side of the main screen, and is oriented towards aircraft-specific maintenance tasks where the user has identified a particular make, model, and serial number. Contained in this mode are five main functions: publications research; inspections and routine maintenance; problem diagnosis, which saves several steps when diagnosing a problem by allowing rapid access with key words across the publications specific to the aircraft and/or component identified in the aircraft profile; troubleshooting, which supplies direct access to the trouble-shooting sections of those publications relating to the aircraft and/or components based on the identified aircraft profile to limit the scope of the search; and data manipulation, which comprises data import/data export (provides for the portability of information associated with an identified aircraft profile and is an easy way to back-up information and/or transfer aircraft maintenance history between repair facilities), job cards (furnishes any easy procedure of transferring text and graphics information from CD-ROM to a windows write editor), and parts purchase order options (allows the user to select part number and description from illustrated parts catalogs or parts kits identified in the service information from which a purchase order or report can be created and written to a separate file on the hard drive).
The other five modes of the maintenance and repair information system in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention are the bookshelf mode publication mode, which provides access to aircraft technical information by the subject or the title of the publication; the card catalog mode, which provides the user with cross-references to libraries external to the maintenance and repair information system; the report generator mode, which assists the user in making queries and writing reports based on the database residing on the hard drive, the individual user""s profile database, and associated compliance information; the utilities mode, which serves as a built-in software support system; and the tutorial mode, which provides an interactive tutorial in which the user receives training on using the system.